This invention relates to a novel organometallic polymer partly containing a vanadiosiloxane bond (V-O-Si) which has excellent heat resistance and oxidation resistance and a high residual ratio (percent of weight after firing/weight before firing) on firing in a non-oxidizing atmosphere such as nitrogen, argon, helium, ammonia and hydrogen.
Various processes have previously been proposed for the production of polycarbosilanes having Si-CH.sub.2 as a main-chain skeleton with an organic side-chain group attached to the silicon atom. For example, Fritz discloses a process for production of a polycarbosilane from a monosilane at page 657 of Angew. Chem., 79 (1967). U.S. Pat. No. 4,052,430 to Yajima et al. discloses a process for producing a polycarbosilane from a polysilane using an autoclave. Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 4,220,600 to Yajima et al. discloses a polycarbosilane partly containing a siloxane bond which can be produced by a process which does not require an autoclave.
We have now found that a novel organometallic polymer consisting mainly of carbosilane and partly containing a vanadiosiloxane bond which has better heat resistance and oxidation resistance and a higher residual ratio on firing than conventional polycarbosilanes can be obtained by reacting polyvanadiosiloxane or a vanadium complex in which a coordination atom adjacent to the vanadium atom is oxygen, with a polysilane.